


// tethers //

by speckledfeathers



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brother-Sister Relationships, Dadmiral Christopher Pike, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, M/M, Parent Christopher Pike, and then change some stuff, i didn't know that pike tag exists and now i will use it forever, it's gonna be a wild ride folks, spirk, the character tags will be updated as needed, this, this is what you get, what do you get when you squash two different timelines together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23643601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speckledfeathers/pseuds/speckledfeathers
Summary: "My first year at the Academy, I was terrified of open space. I could fly anything, no sweat. But I dreaded putting on that suit— until I remembered the tether. They’re mandatory the first few times a cadet goes out in an EV, and they link you back to what you know. What you love. Help you stay strong even as you’re heading out into that terrifying abyss. And that’s you.You’re my tether.You bring me back."
Relationships: Christopher Pike & Spock, James T. Kirk & Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk/Spock, Michael Burnham & Christopher Pike, Michael Burnham & James T. Kirk, Michael Burnham & Spock, Michael Burnham/Ash Tyler | Voq
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	1. Let's Begin

**Author's Note:**

> this fic has very quickly become a passion project for me. so, the goal right now is to update every two weeks. how many chapters will there end up being? who knows! it's gonna be an interesting ride though, so thanks for joining me and i hope you enjoy it. i've done my best to fill in the plot where things need to be changed, but if anything slips by me and you have a question i most likely will have an answer so comment comment comment!! live long and prosper my friends <3

// Alright folks, let's get started. This first chapter is going to be out of character to set up the timeline I've smashed together for this emotional angst ride we'll all be taking. I've composed a handy timeline that includes canon plot reminders and explanations of where there will be changes.

2226  
\- Michael is born

2230  
\- Spock is born 

2233  
\- Jim is born  
\- The Kelvin is destroyed and George Kirk sacrifices himself to save its crew

2236  
\- Michael’s parents are killed by Klingons  
\- Michael is adopted by Sarek and Amanda

2245  
\- Michael starts her studies at the Vulcan Science Academy

2249  
\- Michael is rejected from the Vulcan Expeditionary Group  
\- Michael is assigned to the Shenzhou as a xenoanthropologist 

2250  
\- Spock rejects his admission into the Vulcan Science Academy and instead joins Starfleet

2254  
\- Spock is assigned to the Enterprise as a science officer under Captain Pike  
\- Michael is promoted to First Officer of the Shenzhou under Captain Georgiou

2255  
\- Pike recruits Jim to join Starfleet  
\- The Enterprise is set to start it’s 5 Year Mission under Captain Pike

2256  
\- Battle of the Binary Stars, Captain Georgiou is killed  
\- The canon events of Discovery Season 1 all take place

2257  
\- Discovery Season 2 *  
\- Pike’s 5 Year Mission cut short  
\- Spock is promoted to First Officer of the Enterprise under Captain Pike

2258  
\- The canon events of the 2009 Star Trek movie take place  
\- Vulcan is destroyed, Amanda dies, Old Spock enters the timeline

2259  
\- Star Trek: Into Darkness **

* Only the first 4 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 (Brother, New Eden, Point of Light, and An Obel for Charon) are canon in this timeline. However, during the fourth episode things get mixed up. When the Discovery encounters the Sphere, the data it accumulated over its long life does not securely integrate itself into the ship’s computer. Saru, having his vahar’ai triggered by the dying Sphere, becomes too ill to help much past fixing the ship’s universal translator. In its last moments, the Sphere attempts a go-big or go-home move and because the crew wasn’t ready for it, the huge influx of information knocks out the ship entirely. The Sphere still managed to move the Discovery out of the blast zone in time and saves them from being destroyed, but they end up dead in the water with only a few systems still working. Saru still survives his vahar’ai. They patch the ship up just enough to go into the network and save Tilly and bring back Hugh. The Section 31 ship captained by Leland assists them and then chaperones them back to the nearest star base for repairs. Let’s address a few other things:

Where does that leave the mission concerning the rest of the seven red signals? Once the Discovery was brought in for repairs, the mission was put on hold.. indefinitely. The rest of the undiscovered signals never revealed themselves-- but to be honest, Starfleet wasn’t looking. They thought their efforts were best suited to getting Discovery back in working order, seeing if anything could be obtained from the Sphere, and dealing with Control. The entire contents of the Discovery’s logs were transferred to Starfleet and labeled top secret. Everyone was told that the Sphere’s data was lost completely, but there are a few skeptics who believe that to be false. The Discovery had a brand new system installed and after the event with the Sphere, was set to be captained by Saru with Michael as his first officer.

It took time, but Amanda eventually gave in to the idea that Spock needed help that he wouldn’t get sitting in a cave, no matter how much she wanted to protect him. She got in touch with Michael, and together the two of them set Spock down the path they thought would be best for him. Michael and Spock take their trip to Talos IV in a stolen shuttle. The Talosians show Michael that her brother was not a murderer, and the two siblings are forced to relive the moment from their past when Michael pushed Spock away. Because the events of this timeline were changed, the visions he received from Doctor Burnham subsided, but still remained. The Talosians helped unlock and unwind the tangled bits before they sent them away. Over time, Spock took his visions as a warning of a possible future, fabricated together by both reality and his imagination from childhood. He healed. He went back to Starfleet after it was proven that the footage against him was falsified (and after Pike vouched for them to not get too harshly punished for stealing a shuttle).

So what about Control? Because of Spock’s recovery, Michael and Pike were able to convince Starfleet to look into the footage of Spock “killing” the medics at the facility. With the help of Saru, the footage was revealed to be fake. Starfleet was forced to look into why their AI would do such a thing, and in the end wiped Control from existence before it gained complete consciousness. Many people fought this decision, as creating Control took time and effort and experience that would be lost forever if it were to be erased. But they made the better decision, choosing safety over anything else. Over the past few years, a new AI has been put in place and they are monitoring it closely as it grows.

** This is where our story begins. The year is 2259 and everything is set up for the events of Star Trek: Into Darkness. However, earlier changes in the timeline are going to ripple out and affect everything in its wake. It may not go exactly as you remember.


	2. jim kirk and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Shit.

“—sorry.” Whoever it was that he just ran into got an elbow to the gut as he tried to turn the corner. If they had heard his apology, they didn’t answer. It left Jim stunned in the middle of the hallway— in a daze, unfocused as the small amount of traffic parted around him until he finally snapped himself out of it. 

When he finally reached his room he practically punched the control pad outside his door. Everything was either moving too fast or too slow for his taste, most likely due to extreme levels of frustration and anger seeping into his system. Jim took two steps in, stopped, heard the door slide shut behind him and then—

_“Shit.”_ He took his cap and threw it frisbee style across his room. It landed somewhere random on the floor, and he didn’t care.

He had left Pike’s office as fast as he could, and nothing felt real. The words _‘they’re taking the Enterprise away from you’_ echoed over and over again in his mind, but until now it hadn’t really sunk in. He had lost his ship. He saved Spock’s life and ensured the survival of an entire planet and they demoted him. In what universe was _that_ fair?

For as many times Jim Kirk had miraculously survived some stupidly insane life threatening situation, one might have thought that he could handle something like this. But this wasn’t what he was good at. What he _was_ good at? Bending the rules, living life on the edge, and handling himself when things were at the lowest of lows. No win scenarios weren’t exactly his thing. But this was a battle he lost— big time. There were some that thought he needed to get knocked down a few pegs, and they were probably rejoicing right about now. At least, that’s what his paranoid brain was telling him. He hated that.

The buttons of his uniform were even annoying him. He fumbled with the ones at his neck for what seemed like half an hour before they finally gave way, and he finally was able to rip it off.

The uniform jacket was first. Then the shoes, the pants, the socks, the shirt. After a few moments he was just a pissed off former Starfleet captain standing in his underwear. All his clothes were still packed, and even though he didn’t much feel like digging through it all to find something casual, he forced himself to do it anyway.

Jim was slipping on some jeans when two pings went off— someone was at the door. He glanced to it and then ignored it, choosing to instead take a seat on his bed and put on some socks.

A second set of pings went off as he was looking for a shirt. He let out a huff of annoyance that interrupted his search for a few long seconds, and then he continued on.

When the two pings went off yet again he finally gave in with an exasperated groan. _“—what is it?”_

His door whooshed open and his guest walked in. It wasn’t who he expected. “Well, you certainly do sound agitated.”

His surprise caused him to freeze midway in his attempt to put a shirt on. But even without seeing her, he knew who it was. _“Michael?”_ Jim gave his shirt a final tug and then turned towards her voice as he attempted to fix his hair. “—what are you doing here?”

“That depends. Do you mean why am I here, in your room? Or why am I here and not aboard the Discovery?”

She was standing there in her typical vulcan fashion: hands clasped behind her, back pin straight, expression hard to read as she innocently glanced at the messy pile of clothes on the floor. It annoyed him (for a very valid reason of course, and certainly not because there was another vulcan he was pissed at right now). Jim couldn’t suppress his oncoming eyeroll. “Both. Care to explain?”

Something akin to a smirk pulled ever so slightly at her lips. “The Discovery has been docked for three days for general maintenance. Starfleet has been.. particularly strict with us ever since the incident with the Sphere. And I am here visiting _you_ in particular because of Spock.”

“Because of _Spock?_ ” That was enough to get a laugh out of him, one heavily laced with bitterness. “Great, that’s just great— well, you can go back and tell him that I don’t need a babysitter, alright?” Jim swung himself around and plopped himself onto his bed, facing away from her and out the window.

“You have misunderstood my meaning.” Light footsteps made their way from behind him until Michael was standing next to him. He refused to look up at her even as she took a moment to pick up his previously discarded cap and set it down on the bed. “Spock did not ask me to come here. On the contrary— I believe that he wished I wouldn’t. But I thought it necessary to see how you are doing.”

Jim let out a sigh, head hanging down against his chest. “How much did he tell you?”

“Not much.” The surface next to him shifted as she took a seat down next to him. “In fact, all he told me was that he upset you. After that, he remained unusually quiet and asked if he could remain in my quarters for the rest of the evening.”

Jim’s face twisted as he finally looked to her. “Spock was sulking?”

“Spock was sulking, yes. I think he still is.”

Once she turned to look back at him, they both cracked a smile. “Good. It makes me feel just a little less horrible knowing that he’s sulking too.”

Michael hummed her understanding, folding her hands together as they sat in her lap. “So, are you going to tell me what happened? Neither you or my brother seem to be very good at speaking your mind today— which I expect from Spock. But you?” She shook her head. 

Kirk’s smile vanished immediately and he was forced to look away, focusing on some faraway point out in the city through the window. “The short version? I saved Spock’s life, and I lost my ship.”

Michael allowed her concern and confusion show, seeing as though her friend wasn’t watching her. Silence filled the room for a few beats and when she realized he wouldn’t be saying anything else, she pushed him further. “Alright. Not what I expected. What’s the long version?”

_“—shit.”_ Damn, he was saying that a lot today. His hands lifted and ran down his face, stopping just in time for the tips of his fingers to cover his eyes. One thing he was constantly grateful for was Michael’s restraint— she kept her judgments to herself and was someone he found very easy to talk to.

“We were surveying a planet— Class M, pre-warp. One of the first things we picked up on was the volcanic activity, especially on one of the southern regions. It was going to erupt, _soon._ And it was going to be devastating.” Jim sat up as he began his story, mind traveling back to those moments. “We decided that it was our duty to stop the eruptions. It was the right thing to do— it was going to destroy _everything._ Their homes, their crops, native plant life, the animals the native population relied on for food and clothes. They themselves would have been decimated, and the few left behind wouldn’t have been able to make it more than a year or two. Spock was brilliant, he created a device to super-cool the magma before it had the chance to erupt. But he had to be _in_ the volcano to make it work.”

“Ah. I can see where this is going.”

Jim glanced at her with a knowing look and nodded, taking in a deep breath. “The shuttle couldn’t handle the emissions coming from the volcano. They tried to pull Spock back up, but his tether broke.” He paused, a pained look flashing across his face. “I couldn’t leave him there. So I broke the Prime Directive and.. pulled him out.”

Michael was listening intently, nodding slowly as she absorbed it all. “So. The native population most likely saw The Enterprise. A pre-warp, pre-industrial society witnessed a galaxy-class starship fly right above their heads and into an almost erupting volcano. But you beamed Spock back in time.”

“Yeah— you know when you say it like that, it sounds way worse than I thought. We docked late last night, and then Admiral Pike had a few choice words for me today.” Jim cringed. “More than a few, actually. On my report, I failed to mention a few things that Spock _did_ mention. I just— I thought Spock would have understood that this was _one thing_ we needed to keep secret. I wasn’t going to let him die, and he was upset with me for saving him! Then he goes with his _‘Vulcans cannot lie’_ bullshit and took my ship from me!”

Was he more annoyed, or angry? Upset at himself or Spock? For a flicker of a second, Jim couldn’t tell— and then it resolved itself again. It was his ultimate employment of self defense: pretending it was someone else who messed up instead of himself. What Spock did was exactly what he should have done as well, and Jim knew it. The decision to have the Enterprise given back to Pike was, quite honestly, the best outcome he could have hoped for.

But right now, it felt as if the entire world had fallen to pieces at his feet.

“Jim.” Hearing his name broke him out of his trance. “I’m sorry that the Enterprise was taken from you. Truly, I am. And I am grateful that you saved my brother’s life. But.. you know him. Starfleet is everything to him. It is in his nature to speak the truth, even if it means he is hurt in the process. We cannot be angry at him for being genuinely himself.”

It felt like his heart was being crushed. Michael was right— but Jim was stubborn. “I don’t _want_ to be angry at him.”

“Then why are you?”

The question at hand wasn’t antagonizing. It was a typical Michael Burnham question— simple, but able to get right to the heart of what was going on. He could have told her that he didn’t know why, and just brushed the question off. He could have told her, once again, that it was Spock’s fault he wasn’t a captain anymore. Or he could have told her the truth. Which was that he was angry at himself for letting Spock be put in that position at all, and that he was scared of losing him. Instead, Jim kept his mouth shut.

Michael stood up. Jim panicked, worried that he had upset her. Instead, she offered him a hand. “One thing I have learned about you is that you do not do well sitting alone with your feelings. So, let’s get out of here.”

His eyes flicked to her hand and then back up to her face. “Are you serious? You hate.. people. And socializing.”

“That’s not true! I don’t hate people.” She sounded defensive, but she kept her hand out. “I’ve just never been good at socializing in large groups. But I’m sure that spending time around you will remedy that.”

“You flipped that around real quick.” There was another beat of hesitation, but then Jim slapped his hand into Michael’s and let her guide him up off his bed.

The smile he was met with was full of hubris. “I am known for excelling at that.”

One of Jim’s brows perked up. “You’re really gonna leave Spock all alone?”

“What, do you expect me to run back to him and have a heart to heart?” One of Michael’s brows copied his own as an incredulous look was reflected back at him. “I will speak to him more after he’s had time to collect his thoughts. Grab that jacket you’re always wearing and let’s go.” She walked away and out the door without another word, leaving Jim scrambling to put on his jacket and shoes as he followed behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> check back in two weeks for the next chapter!! we're starting off with some lighthearted stuff, but be warned— it won't stay that way forever


End file.
